


F.R.I.E.N.D.S

by TenSpencerRiedPlease



Category: Iron Man (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Aromantic Tony Stark, Asexual Bucky Barnes, M/M, Minor Bucky Barnes/Sam Wilson, i honestly don't know, just... enjoy the ride!, this is an aromantic journey
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-23
Updated: 2019-03-23
Packaged: 2019-11-28 20:50:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,597
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18213449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TenSpencerRiedPlease/pseuds/TenSpencerRiedPlease
Summary: Tony paces back and forth, shaking his head. “It was a terrible idea I don’t even know why I agreed,” he says. He does this everytime, which Rhodey is about to point out like he isn’t aware of this.“You do this every time you go on a date,” he says, “so why do you keep going on them?”“It was late, and I’d been awake a long time, and I thought you know what, why not you know?” he asks, shrugging because he’s confused too. As soon as he woke up the next morning he was freaking out because he doesn’t do dates but sleepy him is a fucking idiot who agrees to stupid shit. “I don’t know, I guess I thought it’d be different,” he mumbles. He didn’t, not really, but still.





	F.R.I.E.N.D.S

**Author's Note:**

> I've had this idea for awhile and its loosely based on personal experience (of being but a simple aromantic who keeps ending up on dates I don't want to be on pretty much out of scientific 'maybe u changed tho' curiosity. I haven't changed). Everything beyond the concept is obviously all original and tailored to the characters, of course.
> 
> Also warning for some minor bigotry to aro people but nothing too rough.

Tony paces back and forth, shaking his head. “It was a terrible idea I don’t even know why I agreed,” he says. He does this _every_ time, which Rhodey is about to point out like he isn’t aware of this.

“You do this every time you go on a date,” he says, “so why do you keep going on them?”

He says this like it’s a habit of Tony’s, like he doesn’t go out of his way to avoid being on dates because he’s not a relationship kind of person. He’s always been honest about that but people keep asking him out. “It was late, and I’d been awake a long time, and I thought you know what, why not you know?” he asks, shrugging because he’s confused too. As soon as he woke up the next morning he was freaking out because he doesn’t do dates but sleepy him is a fucking idiot who agrees to stupid shit. “I don’t know, I guess I thought it’d be different,” he mumbles. He didn’t, not really, but still.

“It never is Tony,” Rhodey says. “So how’d you escape this one?” he asks after a moment of exasperation.

“I um. Crawled out the bathroom window the restaurant,” he mumbles and Rhodey pinches it bridge of his nose.

“Seriously?” he asks.

“I text Pepper for how to escape bad date tips and that was her first suggestion,” he says, shrugging.

Rhodey gives him another exasperated look. “Okay Tones, that’s ridiculous. Can’t you just tell people you aren’t interested like a normal person?”

“No, I’m not good at confrontation, you know that,” he says.

Rhodey squints, “you almost got in a fist fight with some random Christian man the other day on the street because you were tired of being preached at. Except you only _just_ exited the building so he barely even preached at you. You spent nearly forty minutes screaming about science and wasps for some reason. Confrontation is your _thing_ ,” Rhodey says. “So why do you avoid confrontation like the plague with dates?”

Because he doesn’t know how to deal with that but he doesn’t know how to tell Rhodey that either. His reasons are circular in logic and frankly they don’t even count as ‘reasons’ so much as flimsy excuses relating to ‘I don’t want to deal with it’ and a million other variations. Eventually he just shrugs and Rhodey sighs.

“Fine, alright. There’s a new Netflix documentary on the Challenger Disaster if you want to watch it with me,” he says and hell _yes_ he does. Science, white collar crime, tragedies- Challenger has it all.

*

Tony curls up with him, allowing Rhodey to put his arm around him as he cuddles in close to watch the documentary. Rhodey wonders if this is his problem, that they’re so clearly meant to be together but he doesn’t see it. Tony’s always been a little dense but it seems like he’s extra dense sometimes in regards to their relationship. Rhodey threads his fingers through Tony’s and he allows it, clinging to his hand happily as the documentary starts.

Rhodey doesn’t get this, why Tony hates dates so much, why he keeps going on them, and especially why he acts like he’s dating Rhodey but doesn’t seem to register it at _all_. He does similar things with Pepper but Pepper has more boundaries than he does so handholding is off the table unless Tony did something dumb and someone has to go hold his hand again. Still, Tony is giving some really mixed signals and Rhodey doesn’t know what to do with that.

They watch in silence mostly, Tony offering a fact or two that Rhodey already knows because he knows a hell of a lot more about space travel than Tony, but he lets Tony thinks he’s smart. He is, just not as smart as Rhodey in this area. All things aviation are his thing and Tony knows plenty, but it doesn’t beat out years of research he started since he figured out how to read. When the documentary closes out Tony runs in his arms a little, looking up at him with some kind of expression on his face before he grins. “How do you always manage to pick the best documentaries? I don’t even _like_ documentaries,” he says.

Yeah, because he’s an uncultured heathen who thinks action movies are Oscar worthy but Rhodey happens to know anything science and engineer related will draw him in. “I know you,” he tells Tony. “That’s all I need.” And no one knows Tony like he does; the only one who even comes close is Pepper. Tony stares at him for a moment and Rhodey knows its coming because he _knows_ Tony, knows every single micro expression he’s capable of because he’s probably been in love with him most of his life. That sure as hell hadn’t been the plan, but Tony is… well, Rhodey doesn’t know how to describe it. Doesn’t even think he could if he wanted to and he’s fine with that.

Tony leans up and kisses him softly and Rhodey pulls him into it, pushing his laptop aside. Tony uses that as an opportunity to climb into his lap, pressing in close like he always does when he kisses Rhodey. He doesn’t do that with anyone else so Rhodey assumes that makes something about this special to Tony. He loves little moments like these, stolen moments really, before its back to Tony’s regularly scheduled cluelessness not that he’s going to let that happen this time. There’s a reason Tony doesn’t like dates and he’s never been the most emotionally aware person on the planet so maybe someone should clue him in to his emotional unavailability. Or more specifically that he’s clearly in love with Rhodey.

He pulls back for a moment, earning a disappointed noise from Rhodey. Rhodey laughs softly, shaking his head. “Don’t be so disappointed, I’m not going anywhere,” he tells him. “I love you,” he adds, pushing it out before he can regret this.

Tony grins, “I love you too,” he says, but it playful. Normal. Only Tony could possibly not realize what Rhodey meant by that.

“No. I mean I _love_ you, Tony,” Rhodey tells him and to his surprise Tony sits back in his lap, confused. Some type of something crosses his face, a whole flurry of emotions Rhodey’s never seen before and that’s not just weird that’s unheard of. “Tony?” he asks after a moment, reaching out to him but Tony pushes him away, climbing out of his lap and out of the bed.

“I um, think I have paperwork to do,” Tony says, scuttling off before Rhodey can say anything and _what_? Since when does he give a shit about paperwork?

*

Rhodey _had_ to go make it weird. Things were fine the way they were, Tony liked their relationship the way it was. It was simple, easy. Now he’s pacing in the living room with Sam looking almost more confused than Rhodey.

“Look if you want me to play therapist at least pay me,” he says.

“You’re not actually qualified to council people yet so I think we’re entitled to free sessions. Or no sessions, that would be even better,” Tony says. He doesn’t need mental meddling, he’s fine the way he is its Rhodey that had to go screw everything up.

Sam lets out a long breath, looking a little dead inside. “Okay. So when did the change here happen?” he asks, looking to Rhodey and that’s rude. Tony has valid things to say too.

“When I told him I loved him. Then all of the sudden he started avoiding me like the plague, which is _rude_ and also Pepper keeps encouraging it because he’s actually doing paperwork now I guess. He’s rather do _paperwork_ than spend time with me,” Rhodey says, obviously upset about this.

“And that’s unusual, I’m guessing?” he asks and Rhodey rolls his eyes.

“He once told me he’d rather get his dick bit off by a leopard than do paperwork and now I guess he’d rather to _that_ then be in the same room as me for ten seconds.”

Tony would say that’s an exaggeration but its true and he knows Sam knows it. “Alright Stark, and what, pray tell, made you ‘get weird’ according to Rhodey?”

“He said he loved me! What the hell do I do with that?” he asks. Ignore it is his plan and he thinks he’s doing okay so far.

“You said you loved me back!” Rhodey says, throwing a hand in the air. Sam’s eyebrows shoot up in surprise as he turns to look at Tony.

“Because I _do_ love you Rhodey, I’m just not _in_ love with you!” Rhodey looks hurt, so hurt, and this is why Tony doesn’t fucking _do_ this shit. This always happens, someone feels some type of way that Tony doesn’t want them to feel and then he gets stuck with the results and he doesn’t _want_ these results its why he stuck with Rhodey instead of dating! He thought Rhodey _got_ it and apparently he _doesn’t_.

“Whoa, whoa,” Sam says, “Rhodey I wouldn’t look so hurt if I were you, I think Tony meant that as a compliment.”

“Seriously?” Rhodey asks, giving Sam a _look_.

Sam sighs. “Tony, explain what’s going on in that big genius brain of yours. What is the difference between ‘love’ and ‘in love’ to you? Because clearly the difference matters.”

Oh fuck off, how’s Tony supposed to explain that? He looks over to Rhodey though and… he sighs. “I… what we had was good Rhodey, I liked that I could relax with you, that you seemed to get what I needed.”

“What you needed was clearly a relationship, that’s what we were doing,” he says, waving a hand around.

“Oh that’s not what Tony was doing, which begs the question of what _were_ you doing? Because I can see Rhodey’s point here, you guys _do_ act like a couple and me saying that makes you visibly uncomfortable so… what’s causing that?” he asks.

He opens his mouth to talk, then shuts it, then opens it again before he clenches his jaw. “I don’t want a relationship,” he murmurs eventually but Sam shakes his head.

“Oh no, relationships you do fine. Me, Pepper, Happy, the rest of the gang- you have relationships with everyone you know without problems. What you don’t seem to want it a _romantic_ relationship,” Sam says, sounding like he’s just realized this himself.

Problem is he’s right. “Yes, exactly. I don’t like those, never wanted one, then _he_ went and made this one. What we had before that was fine, good even. Great, actually. Fantastic,” he says and he’s not being sarcastic even if he can see Rhodey trying to determine if he is.

“We did all the shit people in romantic relationships _do_ Tony, what the hell?”

“Before he continues into a place he regrets with that _what_ was different to you about Rhodey? What made all these… couple-y actions not that to you?” Sam asks.

Tony shakes his head, “because it’s _not_ that, it’s never _been_ that. We’re… I mean, not friends really, but it’s not romance. And it sure shit isn’t brotherly love we’ve slept together that’s weird,” he mumbles.

“It’s been romance the whole fucking time Tony, I’ve been in love with you since I was like fourteen!” Rhodey tells him.

Oh that is _so_ not what he wants to hear. “No, _no_. You just tainted the whole thing I- need to go,” he mumbles, snatching his jacket off the back of the chair and fleeing the room without looking at Rhodey.

He’s halfway down the street before Sam catches up. “Dude, okay, what the hell? I am doing my best to understand here but… you do kind of act like you’re in a relationship with Rhodey and you clearly do not like romance. But I don’t… get… why you uh… don’t think this thing with Rhodey is romance. You have to know how it reads to people,” he says and Tony shakes his head.

“No, I _don’t_. Like I get that people tie the sex thing to the romance thing, and also the commitment thing to the romance thing. Especially when they’re done together but we’re committed to a lot of things that aren’t romantic, and lots of people have sex without romance so I don’t get why those things need to be attached to romance because I like them both and I don’t like romance so please stop throwing it at me,” he says, ending that rant a little pathetically.

Sam sighs, “but what about it wigs you out so bad you all but stopped talking to your best friend for a full ass week? And _paperwork_? Really? You can’t just throw this whole relationship out, I know how much Rhodey means to you and I know how much you mean to him,” Sam says.

Tony shakes his head. “I don’t want it if its got romance on it alright, why the hell do I have to explain that? Can’t I just want what I want?”

“You know from Rhodey’s point of view you’re kind of trying to have your cake and eat it too. Like have all the benefits of a relationship with the ‘I don’t like labels’ attitude,” Sam says, waving a hand around.

Oh as _if_. “Okay first of all as a bisexual I’ve been personally victimized by the ‘I don’t like labels’ attitude and I’d be happy to slap a label on it but no such label exists. Its not my fault people don’t have some kind of name for that feeling you get when you like a person a lot and want to spend the rest of your life with them but in a no romo way.”

Sam squints, “you’re literally the _only_ person who thinks like that, man. I don’t know what that means.”

Tony rolls his eyes. “It means that I love Rhodey, I love our relationship, or I did before he ruined it, and I _do_ want to spend the rest of my life with him but I like that our relationship is platonic. Mostly. I think its not really that either but I don’t have words in any of the languages I know for… that,” he says, knowing he’s worded that poorly.

Sam sighs, “okay,” he says but Tony knows he still doesn’t understand what he’s saying and Tony doesn’t really know either. He doesn’t get how he feels, just that he feels this way. He’s never come across an explanation for this type of feeling, the kind where the commitment and time spent on romantic relationships seems to be rerouted to a more platonic connection but not really.

It’s kind of hard to explain yourself when you don’t actually have words to do it, and its worse when people decide that you did that on purpose. Like Tony just doesn’t want to explain himself because he _does_. If he had some nifty little thing to point at and say ‘that’s it, that’s why I act this way’ things would be easier.

*

He has no idea what Bucky is cooking but it smells good. “So did you sort out Tony and Rhodey’s relationship problems?” Bucky asks, grinning at him.

Sam gives him a _look_. “No. I don’t know what the hell is even up with Tony. The guy is like… real freaked out about romantic relationships in particular, but also wants all the shit that happens in a romantic relationship so that makes no sense,” he says. He gives Bucky a brief recap of the whole situation with a little humor injected into it and Bucky eventually frowns.

“Just sounds like he aromantic,” he says.

“A what who-who?” Sam asks and Bucky rolls his eyes.

“Aromantic. Doesn’t experience romantic attraction. Also sounds like he’s romance repulsed, poor guy. He does find himself in an unusual amount of romantic situations,” Bucky murmurs, shaking his head like any of those words make sense.

“Um. Do you mind explaining all that? Including where the hell you _found_ that term?” Because he’s never heard that a day in his life, he would have remembered if he did.

Bucky sighs, “well, when I figured out the asexual thing I… I don’t know, didn’t split the idea of sex and romance much. But I still wanted a romantic relationship, I just don’t really care about the sex thing and I didn’t know if that was normal or not so I did what I did when he didn’t get how I felt about sex and started googling shit until I got some type of answer that made sense. Turns out a lot of asexual people feel the same way and thus came the split attraction model and also the knowledge that there’s people out there that are basically the opposite of me. Like they do the sexual attraction thing without the romance thing. Except before I assumed that was being in your twenties,” he says.

It isn’t, Sam never had that phase, but it does put Tony’s actions into perspective if that’s how he feels. “Happen to have places I can go to look this up?” he asks Bucky.

He shrugs, “I found it looking up AVEN. Asexual Visibility and Education Network,” he clarifies. “Just google it. There’s a bunch more stuff now than when I first looked this up.”

*

Tony is back to avoiding Rhodey and it’s difficult to do because he hadn’t been lying to Sam. He _does_ love Rhodey and he doesn’t want to give that up but he also doesn’t want anything to do with relationships and he _never_ has. Why is that so hard for people to get? He’s trying to focus on a new design when, thankfully, Sam sends him a message. And then another. And then about ten more after that.

He frowns, clicking into his messages so he can see what’s going on.

*

Rhodey is in his room trying to mourn Tony’s loss because its pretty obvious he’s not coming back and he doesn’t know what to do with that. He’s lived with Tony in some way or another for more than half his life now. That’s hard to process, accidentally pushing him away like he… _guesses_ he did even if he has no idea how.

That’s about when Tony bursts into his room with his usual lack of grace and consideration of privacy. “Rhodey Sam figured it out, its _all_ here,” he says, throwing himself on his bed and handing his laptop to Rhodey. He would have reached out but Tony is already gone, pacing beside the bed. “What are you waiting for? Read,” Tony tells him. He sighs and looks at the screen, frowning at the word ‘aromantic.’

But he reads because clearly Tony thinks it explains something or another. It doesn’t explain anything at all to him, as it turns out because he had no idea not experiencing romantic attraction was even possible but Tony is excited, he can see it.

“Its all there Rhodey, everything anyone has ever said to me. I don’t like commitment; I’m selfish for only wanting sex, that I’m a total asshole- that one kind of has merit- but still. Its there, all of it. I commit just fine, I’ve had long standing friendships so that’s not the problem. And I don’t know why just wanting sex from a person is a bad thing if you tell them up front about it so they don’t misread the situation. And yeah I’m sometimes a dick, but not because I’m some fucked up sociopath who doesn’t want to date you what is _with_ that assumption?” he asks, shaking his head.

Yeah, okay, Tony gets that a lot. Little more from women then men but that’s mostly because men straight up act like dicks and women feel the need to make him mentally unstable he guesses. “I… is this a thing even?” Rhodey asks because he’s never heard of it. Its not the right thing to say because Tony goes still and quiet the way he does when he recognizes that he’s not dealing with someone he likes and that hurts. He never thought he’d be on the other end of one of those suspicious looks, usually they’re reserved for Howard or people who hero worship him.

“Yeah Rhodey, because that’s how _I_ feel. How I’ve always felt but I didn’t have a name for it,” he says slowly, cautiously.

He sighs. “I’m not trying to be a dick, it just seems like one of those weird Tumblr things.”

Again, not the right reaction because Tony rolls his eyes. “So what if it was, that doesn’t change the fact that _that’s_ how I feel. I’m trying to fucking tell you something here and you’re worried about how believable you find it? Seriously?”

Rhodey doesn’t know how to respond to that so he takes a second to think about it, glancing back over to this aromantic thing. To be fair it _does_ seem to explain why Tony doesn’t want a relationship. Doesn’t explain why he hates romance so much though. He pretty much refuses to watch anything with romance in it, which limits him to like… two movies and a half a book. And Wonder Woman because even romance can’t keep him from watching a movie about his favorite comic character but he doesn’t like it still. Tends to fast forward through the romance scenes.

“Okay. So you um, don’t feel romantic attraction. That doesn’t explain why you ran for the hills on me,” he says, asking what he really wants to know but Tony shakes his ehad at that too.

“No but it _does_. Here,” he says, grabbing the computer and typing ridiculously fast. “Look at this and tell me if its familiar,” he says, spinning the computer back around towards him.

He takes the computer back, reading through the thread- titled ‘romance repulsed’- and makes sure he gets through all of it before he responds. It _does_ sound familiar, actually, because he’s heard Tony say almost everything the people in the thread have. He detests the commercialization of romance, hates that its in every piece of media, tends to hold pessimistic beliefs that romance is more about control over people than love, or that its because people want to fuck in the most socially acceptable way possible, or that they can’t stand the idea of not being in a relationship. Granted he seems to react to those things in extremes the way people in the thread don’t, but that’s Tony for you. He doesn’t half ass anything, including hating romance he guesses.

“This does sound a lot like you,” he says eventually.

“It doesn’t sound a lot like me,” Tony says. “It _is_ me. How many rants about Valentine’s Day have I gone on? How many rants about how I just want _one_ fucking movie without a half baked, boring ass romantic subplot that doesn’t _fit_ in the movie to begin with? And you’ve dealt with the sheer amount of times I was blunt and up front with people about what I was looking for only to have them fling romance at me like a monkey flinging shit in a zoo and I was the unfortunate spectator. This explains _everything_.”

Maybe. “Or maybe your looking for an easy explanation, Tony. Confirmation bias and all that.”

Tony rolls his eyes at him again. “Don’t talk at me like I don’t know the scientific process,” he snaps. “I didn’t know what the hell any of that shit was when Sam sent it, but the more I read the more familiar it sounded and the more I read of what people who are aromatic said the more I saw of that in myself. Good science reflects reality and I didn’t even walk into my research with a hypothesis before I found that the evidence all pointed at me being aromantic. So don’t be fucking patronizing, I know how I feel.”

That’s a first for him. Usually Tony has the emotional awareness of a brain damaged flea if he’s that lucky so its… unusual to see him so sure of how he feels. “So what’s this mean, even? What’s with the way you act with me?” he asks.

Tony reaches out and pulls the computer back towards him, typing away again before handing it back. Rhodey picks it up and looks over the information there, baffled at the terms. “The fuck is a ‘queer platonic relationship’ or whatever?” he asks.

“Read the fucking FAQ and find out,” Tony tells him. He sighs, looking over the information but its not… its obviously meant for people like Tony, not people like him.

“Tony this doesn’t _mean_ anything to me. Don’t look at me like that I don’t mean it in a bad way I’m just… this is set up for aromantic people asking questions, not people who do the romance thing wondering why the hell their I guess aromantic best friend is acting like that.” He doesn’t even really know how to define ‘like that’ anymore because Tony made it all weird then claimed _he_ made it weird.

Tony sighs, perching on the edge of the bed, careful to keep his distance in a way he’s never done before. “I meant it when I said I loved you, I _do_ , but it’s not a romantic thing. And I get that people tie sex and romance, I do, but I’ve never tied those things together and I’ve not exactly been shy about it. And I’m just as committed to Pepper and SI as I am to you so the fact that you decided _that_ made this a romantic thing is confusing as shit. None of the things we do are inherently romantic and I just kind of assumed you knew that,” he says, shrugging.

No the hell he didn’t because normal people don’t see it that way even if Tony kind of has a point about the commitment thing. “Tones, people normally read those things as romantic. I kind of thought you were your usual unaware self and didn’t get that you didn’t want a relationship because you’re basically already in one.”

Tony wrinkles his nose fast, reminding him of his parent’s old dog whenever she ate onions that happened to be in things. Or that time he got her to lick a lime. Poor dog was right pissed about that. “I didn’t, I don’t want a relationship and I’ve always maintained that so _why_ would you assume I’d want that with you? Its not like you get the benefit of the doubt about not knowing how genuinely serious I am about not wanting to be in a romantic relationship,” he points out. “You’ve known me for longer than you haven’t.”

He runs his hands over his face. “Tony, I already told you. I misunderstood what you meant.”

“No, you deliberately ignored what I’ve been explicitly telling you for years because _you_ wanted what I didn’t. Don’t look at me like that Rhodey its damn well true- you did what everyone else I’ve ever dealt with in this situation has except you know me more than well enough to know better. That’s shitty,” Tony tells him, shaking his head in disappointment.

He leans forward, “Tony,” he says but Tony dodges his grasp, snatching his computer and running off with it.

*

Sam sits with them both, glancing between them for a moment before he turns to Bucky, who frowns. “Why are you looking at me?” he asks.

“I don’t know about this stuff and you do, it makes sense for _you_ to do this.” Given the look on Bucky’s face he doesn’t agree. “Honey, you were the one who figured this out, and you know way more about how Tony’s feeling than any of us. You’re the most useful here,” Sam points out.

Yeah, Tony thought he was going to get a therapy session, not fucking Bucky. He wants nothing to do with _any_ therapy sessions regardless of who is doing them. Bucky sighs. “I don’t… know anything about how Tony feels. I’m not aromantic, I’m asexual. That’s not the same.”

“What’s with that anyway, people assuming those are the same?” Tony asks. Because he sees a lot of it, and when he mentioned the aromantic thing to Pepper she laughed and said that there’s no _way_ he’s uninterested in sex and that wasn’t even what he _said_.

Bucky shrugs, “most other sexual orientations imply that your romantic leanings go the same way. Asexual is the only one that explicitly states it doesn’t,” he says. “Unless you actually are aromantic and asexual then it kind of does.”

Oh, right, good point. Rhodey looks between him and Bucky and sighs, “okay, can we get to the damn point here. He’s pissed off I ignored his disinterest in romance but I didn’t know he was serious about it,” he says and Tony squints at him.

Thankfully Bucky does too, though Sam looks more like he’s as confused as Rhodey. “Dude, there’s _never_ been a moment in his life where he’s had an interest in romance. He’s literally spent his entire life talking about how relationships aren’t his thing, why the hell would you assume he wasn’t serious?”

“Words are words, actions showed he was fine with it if it was me,” Rhodey says and Tony clenches his jaw.

“Did you ever _ask_ if that’s what he was doing? Because the look on Tony’s face suggests that’s not what he was doing,” Bucky says.

“I mean no, but I didn’t think I needed to ask. Its not like normal people are aromantic or whatever,” Rhodey points out, earning a dirty look from both him and Bucky.

“‘Normal people?’ Come on, you’re not stupid so you should know how offensive that is. And ‘normal people’ also tend to ask about relationship status so that’s not an excuse. What made you think ignoring _years_ of Tony saying the same thing about his feelings towards romance was a good idea? I know how that feels, with the sex thing, and it fucking sucks. Did it even occur to you that he might be serious?”

Ouch. Tony would feel bad for Rhodey except he’s kind of pissed off at him at the moment so he doesn’t feel bad at all. He did this to himself and Bucky is right, if he thought to ask, or even if he took Tony’s word for it they wouldn’t be in this mess.

Rhodey sighs, rubbing his temples. “Its not like Tony knows what’s best for him ninety percent of the time-” he starts but Tony cuts him off.

“That makes sense within the context of my alcoholism, not saying I don’t like romance. How the fuck is it _bad_ for me to not want that?” he snaps.

“Yeah, I’ll give Tony that. He clearly never thought he was missing out, and went through a lot of effort to make sure he was missing out,” Sam says and Rhodey gives him a dirty look.

“Who’s side are you on?” he asks.

“What the hell is this, that time Steve and Tony nearly fucked our entire friend group because it turned out Steve knew shit about how his parents died and didn’t tell him? And you know, Tony himself and also had some addiction issues at the time. Point is this isn’t that- there’s no sides, there’s just two opposing points of view,” Sam says.

“Sounds like sides,” Tony says.

“ _Thank_ you,” Rhodey says to him and wait, no, he didn’t want to help Rhodey here.

Sam sighs, “not everything with different points of view needs to be oppositional. And Bucky makes a point- you should have asked at the least and assumed years worth of Tony saying the same things about his feelings towards romance were probably built on actual feelings at the most.”

“We basically acted like we were in a relationship, Sam,” Rhodey says. “Forgive me for the mixed signals I was getting.”

Bucky frowns. “Were you though? Because Tony’s an affectionate person, he’s cuddled with all of us, kissed most of us, and slept with almost the entire friend group minus me and Steve. Aside from the fact that he clearly prefers your company he didn’t do _anything_ with you that he hasn’t done with the rest of us. That’s not mixed signals anymore.”

“I’ve slept with Steve, actually. A few times.” More like hate sex really, they’ve never liked each other even if there was a time when they mostly deluded themselves into thinking they did. The sex was good though so there’s that.

“Is that relevant right now?” Bucky asks.

“No, but I did it so I felt compelled to correct misinformation,” he says. “In the interest of not ending up here with anyone else,” he adds, waving a hand around.

“Don’t think not knowing you slept with Steve would land you here but thank you for that,” Sam says. “Also Bucky makes a point again, Tony’s the friend group bicycle, we’ve all been with him in some capacity.”

 _What makes you so special_? Hangs in the air but no one says it out loud. No one needs to. “I just like the company, the intimacy. That doesn’t need to be romantic, it just needs to be there,” he says, shrugging.

“Explains why you’ve been with all of us if you don’t attach romance to your actions,” Bucky says. “You’re looking for intimacy, not a romantic attachment. You can get that from anyone even if you obviously prefer Rhodey.”

“Why is that, anyway?” Sam says fast, obviously wanting the question out before he can be interrupted.

Tony shrugs, “I just… thought Rhodey understood better than anyone else. He never asked for more than what I was willing to give but I guess that’s not really true considering he thought it was some type of romantic thing the whole time.” And he doesn’t know how to explain the heartbreak that goes with that, realizing the whole time you’ve spent time with someone who appeared to accept your boundaries and limits only to find out the entire time they’ve been not doing any of that. That he’s spent actual years assuming that they’ll end up in a position that might seem natural to him but isn’t to Tony and Tony has _said_ that a million times.

From the looks of it he doesn’t need to explain this to Bucky and Sam looks like he’s trying to work out a puzzle in his head. Rhodey looks guilty and he should be, its not like Tony wasn’t clear about what he wanted or needed.

*

He stands outside the door for a long time because he wants this, sure, but not in the same way Rhodey does and he has no idea where Rhodey stands in all of this. Eventually he shakes his head and walks in though, quietly because it’s late, and plods into the room. He considers Rhodey’s bed for only a moment before climbing in and curling into a ball. Rhodey must sense his presence immediately because he rolls over and wraps an arm around Tony’s waist, pressing himself in close to his back.

Tony weaves his fingers through Rhodey’s because he misses this, the intimacy, being close to someone. He loves Rhodey, really, just not in the way Rhodey wants him to. For now though he ignores it in favor of falling asleep. Its been awhile since he hasn’t slept beside Rhodey and its messed up his sleep patterns.

*

When he wakes up in the morning he already knows its late, he naturally sleeps later than Rhodey does so he’s surprised to find him still there in bed, hand still in Tony’s. Except he’s got Tony’s hand in his instead of the other way around. Tony stretches himself out some and Rhodey holds tighter to his hand for a moment before it becomes obvious Tony isn’t going to pull away.

“I’m sorry,” Rhodey murmurs. “You’re right. I ignored what you were saying because I wanted something else and that’s not fair.”

Damn right it isn’t but he doesn’t tell Rhodey that. “Okay,” he says softly, unsure how to react to that.

“Do you think we can work this out?” Rhodey asks, obviously trying to keep the hope from his voice. But Tony doesn’t want to lose this, never has, so he nods. Rhodey hugs him tighter. “Great, because I kind of realized that I don’t actually think I could be with anyone else and yeah okay you do things weird but you do everything weird so I’ll deal with it. I’ve dealt with worse out of you. Like that time you stupidly agreed to a date with Justin Hammer and he still hasn’t stopped following you around.”

Tony shudders, “please don’t remind me of that night I’ve repressed the memory.”

“Bitch, I had to go save you from his weird clingy ass. Lets not act like I was left unharmed by that decision.”

Okay, good point. “Better than the time Pepper went on a date with an actual Nazi,” he points out and Rhodey snorts.

“Using Pepper’s absolutely _horrific_ luck with men is not a good comparison,” Rhodey tells him.

“Remember that time she dated _me_? Poor woman, she’s frighteningly competent and gets stuck with the shittiest guys.”

“To be fair she did chose you. I don’t know why because you were a dick and a drunk but she did choose that,” Rhodey points out. “And it did lead to your sobriety so I’ll be happy about it even if it sucked to watch.”

Tony twists in Rhodey’s arms, frowning. “Wait, what?”

Rhodey raises an eyebrow. “What, what? I told you, I’ve been in love with your for years and don’t give me that look I know how you feel about that but its true. It sucked, watching you go through our entire friend group and you always seemed to come back to me but I didn’t really get _why_ at the time. Soft of felt like I was always your backup choice.”

Backup choice? Tony shakes his head. “Rhodey, I kept coming back to you because you seemed to be the only one who didn’t try and pressure me into something I didn’t want, not because you were a back up plan. Its _why_ I stuck with you for the last few years, even if occasionally I get stuck on dates I didn’t want to be on because sleep deprived me is a dumb piece of shit. Can I just claim we’re dating so people back off?” he asks. Then he _can’t_ go on dates because social convention dictates that going on dates when you’re already dating someone is a dick move.

Rhodey laughs, “all these damn years I’ve wanted you to ask that, not in that exact way, and we had to go through all this bullshit to get there. Yeah, that’s fine. To be honest I’m kind of surprised you didn’t pull that already.”

He didn’t think of it until just now, probably because his thing with Rhodey isn’t romance so he didn’t want to throw romance at it. “And you? Its not like you haven’t been on dates,” he points out.

“Yeah uh, every single one of them rightly pointed out that I’ll love you more than I’ll ever love them,” he says. “So I ended up back here anyway.”

Tony presses his face into Rhodey’s chest. “I love you too. No romo.”

**Author's Note:**

> [My writing Tumblr](https://tenspencerriedplease.tumblr.com/)


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